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The case is written based on publicly available data from primary sources like the company’s annual reports and presentations and from secondary sources, as indicated in the references.

Barnes & Noble Inc. (B&N), one of the oldest and largest American retail booksellers founded in 1917, was facing a grim business situation underpinned by a fall in demand, a change in consumer preference and stiff competition. After almost a century of being in the business, B&N was experiencing a fall in market share and weak stock market performance. In 2019, the company was sold to Elliot Advisors – a hedge fund – for US$638m. With the appointment of new chief executive officer (CEO) James Daunt in August 2019, a man known for the turnaround of similar businesses, B&N expected its business’s revival and reorganization strategy to turn profitable. Its long-term strategy of beating competitors with its offerings’ sheer volume and low prices was no longer viable. The turmoil was compounded by top management crises with the repeated changes and ousting of several CEOs in a short span, alongside the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns in 2020 and 2021. Daunt was considering how to overcome the crisis and act fast to reposition the company and regain the loyalty of its customers. Was there more that the company could do to improve the company’s position and restore profitability?

The case can be used in strategic management and entrepreneurship classes at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The case can be used in an investment analysis and management course to teach students the industry analysis technique using Porter’s five forces model.

After completion of the case study, the students will be able to appreciate and understand why brands are an essential asset to the company and how they can enhance business value, understand the factors needed to grow brands in the growth stages and evaluate the choices that start-up companies have to grow their brand in competitive and growing markets.

Mamaearth was born as a direct-to-consumer brand in 2016 by a couple who could not find chemical-free, safe products for their child. The company that introduced as a baby-care brand soon consolidated itself to play in the space of personal care category (targeting millennials), and by 2020, it was earning majority of its revenue from skincare. It started by leveraging the power of social media space and online commerce and slowly moved to be a national brand with offline footprint and mass-media communication. In its growth journey, it acquired many brands and launched a few to cater to the specialized needs of its target audience. As the company grew, attracted impressive investors and started clocking profits, it aspired for an initial public offering (IPO). Varun and Ghazal Alagh, the founders of Mamaearth, knew that to refloat an IPO and to grow the company further, they needed to redefine their portfolio and marketing strategy. They had a choice to either invest in building a broader portfolio – organically or inorganically – or expand across geographies. Both were an option, albeit expensive, which could cost Mamaearth its profitability.

This case is intended for discussion in undergraduate and graduate management courses.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 8: Marketing.

Boutique hotels reflect a nascent phenomenon in the literature and in the accommodation sector. As a result, they are void of governmental classification and regulation. Concurrently, they lack any form of operational definition. The purpose of this paper is to address these limitations by identifying the core attributes found to define boutique hotels.

To fulfil the purpose of this paper, the authors conducted a systematic literature review on Web of Science. This resulted in an analysis of 33 peer-review articles published from 1994 to 2022.

The findings of this review revealed that boutique hotels are defined by eight core attributes; these are (1) multiple ownership structures, (2) situatedness in a historic premises, (3) strategic locations, (4) thematized internal décor, (5) experience design, (6) high levels of personalization, (7) novelty in service provisions and (8) niche marketing strategies.

For policymakers, this paper may be used as a reference point to establish designated classification systems for boutique hotels. For practitioners, this paper may be used as a source of inspiration and benchmark to establish boutique hotels which align to the criteria highlighted in this paper. For scholars, this paper proposes an operational description of boutique hotels and novel areas for future research.

This paper represents one of the initial efforts undertaken by researchers to unify the literature on boutique hotels.

This study explores the influence of heritage brand extension on consumer purchase intention and analyses the effects of pop culture involvement. The extension of heritage brands is becoming increasingly difficult because such an extension needs to be consistent with the unique characteristics of brands and resonate with consumers. However, few scholars discuss the influence of consumers' level of pop culture involvement on brand extension and purchasing behaviour.

Taking time-honoured brands as an example, this study established a conceptual model based on a comprehensive review of the literature, and then tested the model using a sample of 255 respondents who were familiar with one of the selected Chinese time-honoured brands. Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the relationships amongst brand extension fit, pop culture involvement, perceived value and purchase intention.

Time-honoured brand extension fit has a positive impact on consumer purchase intention, and this path is significantly influenced by the mediation mechanisms of perceived value. Situational pop culture involvement can significantly strengthen the relationship between time-honoured brand extension fit and perceived value, whereas enduring pop culture involvement does not.

The results clarify and expand on the different roles of cultural involvement in time-honoured brands and broaden research on the influence of cultural involvement in this regard. This study has significant theoretical value for the inheritance and revival of heritage brands and provides a reference for the practice of time-honoured brands.

The construction of geographical indications agri-food (GIAF) brands play an important role in rural revitalization in China, this study aims to explore how to jointly promote brand building among multiple parties.

A tripartite game model of the producers, sales operating enterprises, and local governments is constructed to analyze the strategy choice of the parties in the complex system behavior evolution stability, and the simulation analysis of the influence factors of brand construction of GIAF and verify the game result.

(1) Increased government subsidies and supervision costs are beneficial to accelerating variety improvement and quality improvement of agri-food, but it is not conducive to the government, Therefore, it is necessary to ensure that the subsidy and supervision cost is kept within a reasonable range; (2) The dividend distributed to producers by sales operating enterprises play an important role in encouraging producers to improve the quality safety of agri-food, but it must be kept within a reasonable range to avoid discouraging the enthusiasm of sales operating enterprises; (3) Cost reduction, and revenue improvement are also effective ways to cooperate with all parties in brand co-construction.

This study does not consider consumers or logistics companies in the evolutionary game model.

This study proposes innovative policies and suggestions for improvement of the brand co-construction of all parties.

Based on the “Rural Revitalization” initiative, this study enriches research methods about brand value and provides a new perspective for brand value co-construction, and theoretical guidance, and empirical basis for formulating innovation policies and recommendations.

This study aims to examine an emerging product–place co-branding marketing practice in China’s rural areas. The role of this practice in inclusive development is analyzed from the perspectives of value proposition innovation, market legitimacy, media coverage and brand value. Both research and practice indicate value proposition innovation to exert an important influence on brand value enhancement, but little is known about the mediating and moderating mechanisms underlying this relation.

A moderated mediation model is constructed to examine whether market legitimacy mediates the relationship between value proposition innovation and brand value. vWhether this mediating process is moderated by media coverage is also examined. The primary data are collected from semi-structured interviews and observations conducted with two common cases to develop proper scales for value proposition innovation and market legitimacy. The research includes 100 product–place co-brandings published by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs in 2019. Hypotheses are tested using hierarchical regression and a Bootstrap model.

Value proposition innovation has a positive effect on brand value, and market legitimacy partially mediates this relationship. Media coverage positively moderates the relationship between value proposition innovation and market legitimacy, and positively moderates the mediating effect of market legitimacy; the higher the media coverage, the stronger the mediating effect of market legitimacy.

Based on data availability and accessibility, the study sample focused on indicators from 100 brands in 2019. If the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs discloses consecutive annual information for other years, future studies could explore panel data to further test the study’s conclusions from a longitudinal perspective.

First, this paper adds to the emerging literature on product–place co-branding business models by examining the relationship between value proposition innovation and brand value. Second, this paper enriches institutional theory by including market legitimacy as a mediator between value proposition innovation and brand value. Third, this paper identifies the moderating role of media coverage, thus broadening the theoretical implications of institutional theory with respect to improving market legitimacy.

This chapter investigates the importance of fashion houses in the progressive redefinition of tourism geography within a metropolitan context. The purpose is to highlight how these brands manage both to integrate marginal urban areas into the tourist circuits and to co-construct market-oriented heritage policies. Through the case of Fendi Roma and the EUR district (Rome, Italy), this chapter explores their degrees of involvement in the processes of requalification and estheticization of peripheral urban areas. The study found that the involvement of the luxury brand in Roman urban governance is symptomatic of evolutions in the political strategies pursued by public actors in their relations with private investors.

In contemporary cities, private actors, such as luxury fashion houses, increasingly participate in projects, affirming themselves as relevant players in urban transformation. Based on the case of “SouPra” district (Milan, Italy), this chapter focuses on the effects of the opening of a fashionable artistic venue on the tourism development. It explores the promotional actions implemented by tourism entrepreneurs after the opening of the Prada Foundation. The analysis leads to two main results: actors in tourism exploit the urban brand conveyed by Prada, which becomes an integral part of the city branding. Fashion houses also act as marketing devices, producing new urban narratives that influence both the tourist and the real estate market.

The present study, by using signaling perspective aims to investigate short-term valuation impact of rebranding announcements (with name change) on stock performance of 160 service firms listed on NSE NIFTY-500 over the period of 2000–2019.

An event study methodology is used to estimate the cumulative abnormal returns (CARs) and its statistical significance is tested with both parametric and non-parametric test-statistics. Separate analysis has been conducted for firms with “major vs minor” and “restructuring vs non-restructuring” name change.

Findings of the study suggest that rebranding decisions are negatively associated with abnormal returns around the announcement period indicating strong disapproval of name change event. In addition, investors formed strong adverse opinion for major name change firms as compared to minor name change firms. Further, restructured name change sample document larger negative drift than non-restructured sample.

Findings offer substantial repercussions for shareholders who can make informed judgments about name change as a signal of reinventing brand identity. Managers should announce detailed rationale behind name change decision to market for enhancing corporate reputation.

This study contributes to marketing-finance interface literature and is first to examine market reaction to name change of Indian service firms and moreover, made a distinction between major vs minor and restructured vs non-restructured name change events for these firms.

The primary objective of this research is to draw a comparative analysis between Turkey and Italy in terms of how festival events function as catalysts for the endorsement of regional culinary delicacies. The study endeavours to elucidate the role of these festivals in fortifying the regional gastronomic landscape of both nations.

Adopting a comprehensive comparative methodology, this study meticulously scrutinises the gastronomy festivals spanning diverse geographical locales in both Turkey and Italy. Consideration is given to the standout food and beverage items spotlighted at these events and the venues where they are hosted. The research design takes into account the extensive cultural and geographical spectrum that characterises Turkey and Italy. The primary research method comprises web content analysis techniques. This method involves analysing textual data from online sources pertaining to gastronomy festival events in both countries. Web content analysis is instrumental in evaluating how such festivals are deployed in promoting indigenous gastronomic products and exploring the intricate dynamics between brand identity and brand image.

The research outcomes underscore the pivotal role that festival events play in elevating regional gastronomic products' profile in Turkey and Italy. It highlights the top 10 festivals and the most popular local culinary items on digital platforms. Additionally, the study offers a side-by-side comparison of the most celebrated gastronomic products in Turkey versus those that receive prominence in Italy.

This study enriches academic understanding by dissecting the nuances of how festivals contribute to the promotion of local gastronomic treasures. By juxtaposing Turkey and Italy, this research provides valuable insights into the influence of festivals on regional culinary promotion across diverse cultural milieus. This study makes substantial contributions to the fields of gastronomy, tourism, and brand promotion.